Electronic device manufacturers strive to produce a rich interface for users. Conventional devices use visual and auditory cues to provide feedback to a user. In some interface devices, kinesthetic feedback (such as active and resistive force feedback) and/or tactile feedback (such as vibration, texture, and heat) is also provided to the user, more generally known collectively as “haptic feedback” or “haptic effects”. Haptic feedback can provide cues that enhance and simplify the user interface. Specifically, vibration effects, or vibrotactile haptic effects, may be useful in providing cues to users of electronic devices to alert the user to specific events, or provide realistic feedback to create greater sensory immersion within a simulated or virtual environment.
An increasing number of devices, such as smartphones and tablets, include hardware, such as actuators, for generating haptic effects. Haptic effects, in particular, can enhance the viewing of audio and/or audio/video on these devices. For example, haptic effect accompaniment to an audio/video track can allow a viewer to “feel” an engine roaring in a car, explosions, collisions, and the shimmering feeling of sunlight.